Chapter 12

CHAPTER TWELVE

The double doors opened as I raised my hand to seize the handle.

Yelping—my day seemed destined to be full of this annoying habit—I stumbled back as Ossian appeared in the doorway. He caught my flailing hand and yanked me close, grinning.

I think I would've screamed in fright had it not been for the golden haze of our fated mate bond. It looked like the left side of his face, from the crest of his sharp cheekbone to his ear and the corner of his eye, had been scalded. The puckered flesh was healing before my very eyes, albeit slowly, more of the gemstones in his necklace twinkling away.

His wound was immediately forgotten in the wake of the golden aura emanating from his skin. It was like sunshine breaking through a day of endless rain, and I gasped as warmth flooded through me, erasing the shock of his appearance away like a wave over a footprint in the sand. That warm flood pulsed in time with my own heart, and a second throb joined the rhythm from deep within my abdomen.

"Ossian," I choked, stumbling over the syllables. My hands, pressed against his chest, fisted in his linen shirt, the V of his collar straining and revealing even more of his golden-hued chest beneath. I felt a nearly irresistible urge to kiss that skin, to taste it with long sweeps of my tongue. By the Green Mother, what had gotten into me this morning? "What—"

"Good morning, love," he purred, leaning down to press his lips against mine.

It was… not gentle, but it wasn't the bruising kind of kiss I knew him to give. This Ossian was gentler, magnanimous. He didn't protest when my hands slid from his shirt up his neck and into his copper curls. H-he was letting me touch him? My heart fluttered at his vulnerability.

His arms encircled me and lifted me up against him. My fingers knotted into his hair as his tongue teased a caress against mine. A second later, the unyielding doorframe bit into my back as Ossian trapped me against the wood, his hands hastily yanking my legs up around his waist. At his throat, the big blue gemstone on his necklace glowed like a tiny star.

For a moment, as he kissed down my neck, I had the strangest thought: I'd like these kisses better if he had a beard.

How ridiculous. High fae were never bearded. And yet…

Ossian claimed my mouth again, forcing every thought from my head with that golden haze.

I moaned, that throb in my abdomen beginning to pound. Thistle thorns, it hurt . It hurt denying myself, my passion for him, my lust. I should just submit to this want, let all my inhibitions fall away—

At the far end of the great hall, the grizzly bear bellowed.

I shoved away from Ossian with a strangled cry, fear replacing the mindless desire. Green magic sprang to my fingertips. Shock replaced my fear almost as quickly as it had the desire. The color was noticeably richer than it had been when I'd blasted the holes in my ceiling. The only variable that had changed? That blue spark between Sawyer and me.

Forgetting all about the bear and Ossian, I stuck my two fingers back into the foraging bag and touched the cat hiding inside. Deep inside me, the oak tree of my magic rustled its leaves trapped under Grandmother's curse.

Ossian's hand tightening down on my arm shattered my focus, bringing me back to the physical world. He brushed away a brown lock that had fallen free of my braid. "You needn't fear the bear, love, not when I'm with you."

And I didn't, but it wasn't because of him.

While my fear of the bear was manageable in the fae king's presence, when I touched Sawyer, I only experienced uneasiness. There was a calmness radiating from where my fingertips touched the top of his head, a reassurance I felt in the marrow of my bones. My stomach still cartwheeled like a tumbleweed, but the urge to bolt and soil myself while bolting was gone. In fact, I found myself fully capable of walking into that great hall and finding my seat at the table unassisted —so long as I continued to touch the tabby cat.

Obviously I was beside myself with delight and curiosity and a whole host of other endorphin-inducing emotions at this discovery, the root of which I could never share with Ossian. So I kept my mouth shut about that and flashed him a smile to assuage his suspicions, knowing I'd already taken too long to respond to him.

"I know." I wormed my free hand into the crook of his elbow. "I know I'm safe with you. Can we eat? I'm starving."

He seemed genuinely pleased at my response, so much so that the bemused and crooked smile on his face lingered when he reached up and touched the gemstone necklace. Immediately after, as if to mask the movement, he swept his hand to the great hall, simultaneously gesturing me inside and lifting the copper shield around the bear to dull his roars.

"Shall we?" he quipped, striding forward and pulling me along.

"You needn't do that," I told him, jerking my chin at the shielded grizzly. "You can release the spell."

The fae king stopped and turned fully to face me, his jewel-green eyes hawkishly bright. "Can I?"

I couldn't test the extent of my bond to Sawyer without a little stress, now could I?

"I'm safe with you," I repeated. "Though, I suppose if he gets all loud again you can put up the shield. Hard to enjoy your breakfast when you're getting hollered at."

Now it was me who pulled him forward towards the table. The fae king followed, touching his necklace once more with a look of satisfaction on his face. He seemed actually happy today, as if a weight had been lifted from him. By the Green Mother, had he finally done it?

"Have you found the summoning grounds for the portal?" I asked excitedly, dropping down into my seat.

The fae king actually stumbled over himself as he moved to push my chair in. I hastily yanked the foraging bag onto my lap before there would be no room for it otherwise. If Sawyer hissed as he got squished, the squeak of the chair over the stone floor muffled the sound.

"What makes you ask that?" he asked, his voice carefully neutral.

Had I misread him? "You just look so pleased today. Like something you did is finally paying off. I just thought…"

Seating himself, he covered my hand with his, giving it a squeeze. His skin radiated more of that golden aura. In his corner, the bear grumbled. "I am pleased, Meadow, just not for the reasons you think. But in regards to the summoning grounds, I think I've actually made a breakthrough."

At that moment, Mrs. Bilberry and her bell appeared, and all conversation ceased while the badger and her parade of woodchucks—plus the two Labrador retrievers—served us breakfast.

"Game hens?" Ossian asked as Mrs. Bilberry tonged one onto my plate. It was plump and juicy and still steaming from the oven. "You never eat game hens for breakfast." There was a good deal more of my regular fare on the plate—eggy avocado toast, toast smeared with apple butter, fruit salad.

"Busy day in the courtyard," I replied, shoveling food into my mouth. "It's cold and this girl needs fuel."

"And you remember that you're supposed to drain the plants fully and I'll get you more tomorrow, right?" he asked, voice stern. The golden haze emanating from him dimmed. "We're running out of time, Meadow."

My fingers paused as they pulled off a steaming piece of dark thigh meat from the game hen. On my lap, shrouded by the shadow of the table, Sawyer wormed his entire head free of the foraging bag and opened a salivating mouth. He pressed his paw against my thigh, claws digging through the wool and into my skin in order to crane his head back even further. At his claws' touch, my memory blurred. Two narratives were at war in my mind, each trying to tell the same story.

I was in the courtyard, Ossian opening the door to release me for the day. Then the memory distorted as Ossian either lifted me up and twirled me around, exuberant at my progress, or he became incensed and snatched me, clamping a hand smothered in white powder over my face.

"Meadow?"

At his touch, I panicked. I released the thoughts and covered for myself by dropping the piece of meat with a little cry, pretending to be scalded. Sawyer snatched it up faster than a snake robbing a bird's nest for eggs.

"Oh, I'm so sorry—"

"Just leave it," Ossian said. "The dogs will get it later. Meadow, did you hear me?"

"Yes." I went for a bite of my apple-butter toast. The familiar monotony of chewing helped calm my nerves. I'd never had competing narratives of the same memory before. Curse that maelstrom! I focused on what I knew to be true: "You want me to drain the plants. We'll get new plants tomorrow. That's going to take me all day, you know. Can you make sure I'm not disturbed?"

He smiled down at me and reached to caress my cheek with the back of his hand. The shadow of his arm crossed over Sawyer's striped face, and he scooched back as far as he could go back under the table without pushing the bag off my knees. "Of course," Ossian assured. "I'll make sure Mrs. Bilberry sends you in there with another picnic basket. Ah, now don't forget to drink your tonic."

Nodding, I dutifully picked up the goblet of fizzy red liquid and took a large swallow. As it was customarily sour, I'd learned that about three big gulps would drain the goblet before my brain could revolt against the assault on my tastebuds.

After one gulp, I spewed the tonic across the table.

"Meadow!"

Snatching up my napkin, I smothered my mouth—and spit into the linen—and gave Ossian a horrified look. He wore such a disgusted expression that a jolt of alarm zinged down my spine.

"I'm so sorry," I whispered. "But that"—I shuddered—"was vile . Did you change the recipe?"

"It's the same as it's always been," he snapped. And just like that, the golden aura surrounding him intensified.

At the edges of my mind, something encouraged me to relax, to submit, but I shrank back as he snatched up the goblet and practically thrust it into my face. "Now finish it."

Shuddering, my body refused to comply. I shook my head. "Absolutely not."

The veins in his neck bulged as he set his jaw. "Do not defy me."

"Then don't make tonics that taste like burnt pineapple vinegar! Why do you even make me drink those?" Until now, I'd never even thought to ask; I'd just accepted it.

"It's a nutrient supplement; I've explained this before." Ossian yanked the goblet back and added three spoonfuls of sugar into it, giving it a vigorous swirl. "It's to help with your magic. Now try it again."

It was almost as unbearable as before, but I forced it down, mostly because I didn't like the way Ossian was looking at me. The sweet high fae from earlier was gone—only the King of Beasts remained. Then I heaved, but a quick clamp of my hand over my mouth prevented it and the breakfast I'd already eaten from joining the unsweetened tonic on the table.

"Good." Ossian produced the customary little crystal from his belt before returning to his food. "Now charge that and finish your breakfast. Long day ahead, as you've said."

Finish my breakfast? Not likely with my stomach roiling like it was. What was in that tonic? I masked a downward glance to the cat hidden on my lap and nudged my food around my plate with my fork. Sawyer had unlocked some of my memories and bolstered my magic—was my reaction to the tonic his doing as well? Ossian said the tonic was for my wellbeing. The very thing my familiar, for that's what Sawyer was even if we didn't have the traditional bond, would be concerned for, to the extent of protecting me by any means possible. If those two facts were true, then why were Ossian's tonic and Sawyer's defensive magic at odds with each other?

More nauseated than before, I massaged my chest over the hollow spot in my heart, the hollow piece Sawyer had managed to partially close just this morning. Ossian had never been able to do that, not even with our fated mate bond. There was still something missing.

Beside me, at the head of the table, a fork clattered to a plate.

"Meadow," Ossian said.

It took me a few seconds to actually dignify his prompt with a response. His rudeness and aggression still stung. Ossian held a hand out to me, that golden aura shining from his skin, persuading me into complacency.

"You know I only want the best for us, yes?" he asked, voice soft. "That's what that tonic is. And when you refused, it felt like you were refusing us ."

"No!" I protested. "No, not at all." I slipped my hand into his, but the warmth didn't flood down into my toes. It only got so far as my lap where Sawyer was digging both paws into my legs now, head craned up like a hungry baby bird.

"Good. Now, the crystal."

Dutifully, albeit a touch begrudgingly, I charged the rose quartz and let him reach forward to retrieve it so I could get back to my breakfast, my stomach snarling as if I hadn't just eaten two servings of eggy avocado toast already.

"Now that that's settled, let me show you this." He moved his plate to the side and withdrew a folded piece of brown parchment from one of the pouches at his belt. Smoothing the parchment out, he used the salt cellar and the sugar bowl to pin it flat to the table.

"It's a map of Redbud." A very detailed map of Redbud. As I craned forward to get a better look, I dropped an entire deboned breast down into my lap for the famished little beast.

The entire court was laid out in detail on the parchment from the various businesses in the town square to all the forests and fields and rivers. Even the outlying hamlets, down to the very house, were drawn as tiny triangle-topped squares. There was an icon in each field, too—mainly pumpkin, corn, wheat, soybean, cow, a grassy tuft representing hay. Nothing was missing, not even the depictions of the wells in the hamlets.

There were a bunch of X 's marking the map, and Ossian touched on a few of them with a fingertip as he explained, "Tethering a fae portal to this mortal realm requires a great natural or primal source of power beyond that of the witch performing the spell. Vast expanses of sky, volcanoes or old mountains, ancient forests, fast rivers…"

"This river's pretty fast," I said, pointing to the river that cut through the Cedar Haven forest. "And it's in a super old forest to boot."

"No." Ossian winced. "That land has been contaminated by an Unseelie half-heart. You can feel its aura from miles away. A Seelie fae portal will not come there." He tapped a few places unmarked by an X and said, "These are worth investigating. But not without this."

From another pouch on his belt, Ossian withdrew a decorative silver orb very much like the golden censer attached to my foraging bag, except it had no latch and it housed a dark amethyst within.

"So this is what you've spent so much of your time in your silversmithy making?" I asked. "This little thing?"

"That, and other things. Charge that crystal for me," the fae king said.

"Something wrong with your magic?" I countered, not confrontationally. "I need mine to lift the curse, remember? And I've already charged one crystal for you today."

Anger flickered across his eyes at my defiance, but the emotion cleared so quickly I wasn't even sure I'd seen it. "I'm asking you, love ," he answered patiently, though his voice was strained, "to do so because your magic will guide me to whatever spot is most attuned to you. To ‘hedge our bets,' as you mortals are so fond of saying, in case you're not successful in unlocking the entirety of your curse in time. We will be forced to try, whether you're ready or not."

I bristled at the insinuation and snatched up the silver orb. Lifting it to eye level, I peered through the myriad holes at the dormant crystal inside. On a thought, I lowered my hand to my lap to touch Sawyer's face. What if…

Magic jumped to my call. I wasn't slogging through the weariness I should be feeling—Sawyer was bleeding it all away. Pursing my lips to hide my smile, I sent my power into the crystal easily. Despite being a dark purple, the crystal flashed golden-green for an instant before dimming to a faint, but persistent, violet glow.

"Thank you." Ossian plucked the orb from my hand and secured it away in his pouch. He hadn't noticed the relative ease at which I had charged the amethyst and I didn't know whether or not to be insulted.

"Are you done eating?" he asked. "I have to lock you away in that courtyard like a princess in a tower now." He laughed softly at his own joke, but I didn't.

"So where are you exploring today?" I asked as nonchalantly as I could. Wolfing down the last of my breakfast kept my fingers from trembling with a mixture of excited and nervous anticipation. First, because of those two discoveries I'd made about Sawyer. Second, depending on where he was roaming, that was going to put a kibosh on my fieldtrip.

"These southern fields here have my particular attention at the moment. But I'll also let the orb guide me." I wasn't yet finished when he stood and held out his hand, demanding I join him. It was a little too much "I'm the king and you have to do what I say" than I would have liked, but it gave me the excuse I needed to take the half-eaten game hen with me.

Then it was off to lock me in the courtyard for the day.